In what it calls an “all-of-the-above” approach to Arctic development, the U.S. claims it can combat climate change while at the same time exploiting the oil and gas reserves made accessible because of the rapidly warming climate.
“As ice diminishes, ocean resources are becoming more accessible,” a U.S. administration official said in a conference call. She went on to claim that the Arctic contains “about 13 per cent of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and 30 per cent of the world’s undiscovered gas deposits.”
Asked how the U.S. can combat climate change if it continues to burn fossil fuels, she said it intends to exploit Arctic riches “in a responsible way … that looks to minimize the damage to the environment (and) seeks ways to advance alternative resources as well as fossil fuels such as wind.”
Jamie Henn of the environment group 350.org said the White House policy “epitomizes the self-contradictory approach the White House is taking when it comes to climate change.” He added that “they clearly recognize the threat, but haven’t internalized the simple math that shows we need to keep roughly 80 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves underground to limit global warming below 2 degrees C.”
The policy sets out in broad terms the three priorities of its Arctic policy that include advancing U.S. security interests, protecting the environment and strengthening international cooperation in the Arctic.
The policy announcement comes just before the Arctic Council and its eight Arctic nations meet in Sweden on Wednesday as part of ongoing discussions about how to exploit the Arctic for shipping, tourism and resource extraction while protecting the environment. Canada will chair the meeting.
The council has no legal status. Fourteen other countries, including China and European Union members, have applied for observer status. The administration official, who did not want her named used, said the U.S. has yet to take a position on these requests.
Arctic nations are trying to claim as much of the emerging Arctic Ocean as possible by claiming continental shelves as an extension of sovereignty. Canada has disputes with the U.S., Russia and Greenland (Denmark).
The United Nations Law of the Sea Convention will decide these claims over the next few years. The U.S. Congress, however, has never signed this treaty, but the administration has always abided by its provisions and rulings.
While nations meet to chart the rules of engagement for Arctic exploitation, scientists have announced the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has now reached 400 parts per million (ppm), a level never before recorded in the history of mankind.
“It means we are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what people thought were possibly tolerable thresholds,” Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography CO2 program, told the New York Times.
Scientists say similar atmospheric CO2 content was last seen about three to five million years ago during the Pliocene era when temperatures were about six Celsius warmer and sea levels were about 25 metres higher than today and when much of the Arctic was covered with savannah.
The Pliocene carbon atmosphere took tens of thousands of years to develop while mankind has changed today’s atmosphere in a mere 150 years. Among the many dangers posed by rapid climate change, scientists warn, is potential extinction of plants and animals unable to adjust to changing climates.
For most of mankind’s short history the average CO2 concentrations have been a fairly steady 280-ppm. The atmosphere acts as a sort of sunshade that keeps the Earth from getting too hot or too cold. The thicker the carbon concentration the hotter the Earth gets and vice-versa.
The readings were recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which has been plotting the CO2 content in the atmosphere since 1958 when it was only 310-ppm. The concentration has risen steadily since that time, reflecting huge increases in the burning of oil, gas and coal.
Arctic observatories including one in Alert, at the top of Canada’s Ellesmere Island, recorded readings in excess of 400-ppm last year. The Hawaii reading is the first 400-plus to be found south of the Arctic and the National Oceanic and the Atmospheric Administration expects these readings to be seen in the next few years all over the Southern Hemisphere.
“The increase in the Northern Hemisphere is always a little ahead of the Southern Hemisphere because most of the emissions driving the CO2 increase take place in the north,” the NOAA said on its website.
Global CO2 emissions have increase an average of about 2.7 per cent over the last 10 years.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: William Marsden
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